Greens MP and environment spokesperson Cate Faehrmann is warning the state’s treasured National Parks are under siege from minority interests wanting to take advantage of O’Farrell Government’s lax attitudes towards the environment.

Ms Faehrmann has expressed alarm over the O’Farrell government’s plans to open up National Parks and Wilderness Areas to horse riders. Environment Minister Robyn Parker has announced plans to increase access for horse riders to National Parks and to allow them into Wilderness Areas for the first time.

“Horses introduce weeds to National Parks through seeds excreted in their faeces. Their hooves cause soil erosion and the weeds erode the biodiversity of native plants and animals. The National Parks and Wildlife Service refers to horses as ‘pest animals’ on its website,” said Ms Faehrmann.

“Labor had already started letting horses back into National Parks to the point where they now have access to thousands of kilometers of tracks in more than a 110 reserves.

“Not satisfied with this the horse lobby has successfully lobbied the O’Farrell government to open up national parks further and even let them into an as yet unidentified wilderness area, where horse riding has always been banned, for a pilot study. Candidates are Kosciuszko, Barrington Tops, Oxley Wild Rivers and Wadbilliga.

“The trouble with an experiment like that is that once you realise it was a terrible mistake it’s impacts are impossible to reverse.  Just ask the NPWS rangers and bush regenerators who spend their lives trying to eradicate weeds introduced to national parks and reserves. Wilderness Areas are precious refuges for native wildlife and their protection should not be put at risk in this way,” said Ms Faehrmann.

The policy Parker has announced would see existing tracks in National Parks opened up to horse riding in the first instance, with medium terms plans to create new tracks and horse riding camps within National Parks.

Ms Faehrmann said: “The Wilderness Act says access to wilderness areas should be ‘self reliant’. The government is stretching that definition beyond credibility to include horse back. It is a dangerous move. If horse back counts as self reliant – what next – motorbikes, 4WDs?

“The plans Parker has announced reveal a deep ignorance about the precarious ecology of National Parks and a total disregard for decades of conservation effort to protect them from invasive species and other threats,” said Ms Faehrmann.

Media contact: Peter Stahel 0433 005 727

Coalpac’s plan to expand open-cut and highwall coal mining in Ben Bullen State Forest has gone on exhibition. It is a plan that will raze 1088 hectares of public forest (2,176 football fields), place important biodiversity at risk and have consequences for the iconic rock formations known as the Gardens of Stone. It would also happen within 1.2km of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.

The Blue Mountains Conservation Society is campaigning hard against the project and we need to help them. Submissions will be open from 10 April to 1 June 2012. ‘Coalpac Consolidation Project’ (NSW DoP Application No: 10_1078 and EPBC No: 2010 5776). Click here for a helpful submission guide.

Coalpac Pty Ltd is seeking approval from both the NSW and Commonwealth Governments to ‘consolidate’, continue and expand its existing Cullen Valley Mine and Invincible Colliery coal mining operations.

Ben Bullen State Forest straddles the Great Dividing Range and is a scenically and biologically diverse area of outstanding natural values. It has long been of conservation interest and was first advanced by environment groups as part of the Gardens of Stone reserve system in 1985. The Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) has acknowledged its wish to add Ben Bullen State Forest, in its entirety, to the conservation reserve system as a matter of priority. Dont let mining destroy this vision!

The project will be assessed for both NSW and Commonwealth purposes by an accredited process under Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW).  In this instance, the NSW Department of Planning & Infrastructure has handed its decision making powers to the Planning Assessment Commission.

Attend the  rally:

When: 11am – 12pm, Saturday 5th May 2012
Where:Town Square, 180-184 Macquarie Road, Springwood
What:  A peaceful rally of supporters who will gather for a media photo opportunity and listen to speakers including Cate Faehrmann.

In December 2011 the NSW government announced a 6 month ban on commercial pipi harvesting after the Greens letter writing campaign and an unprecedented alliance with recreational fishers. That ban is soon to expire and pipis need your help to have it extended.

Anecdotal evidence suggests pipi populations are far from recovered and that it would be premature to end the moratorium. Dr Lee Andersen from Ballina Coastcare, Ballina Shire Greens councillor Jeff Johnson and expert fisherman John Clarke recently surveyed South Ballina Beach and didnt find a single pipi.

I have written to the Minister to recommend the moratorium remain in place until there is firm quantitative evidence that pipi populations have achieved a sustained recovery and until long term enforceable management arrangements are in place to ensure harvesting is conducted at sustainable levels.

Please contact the Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson at office@hodgkinson.minister.nsw.gov.au

You might like to include the following points:

• Thank her for the moratorium placed on commercial pipi harvesting in December 2011
• Six months has not been sufficient time to allow pipi populations to recover
• Please extend the moratorium until there is firm evidence pipi populations have recovered and are at secure levels that can sustain an ecologically sustainable harvest

Despite heavy rain in the catchment, Thirlmere Lakes have been gradually emptying. It is thought that mining in the area by Xstrata is to blame and that it has fractured the rock barrier beneath the lakes and the aquifers below leaving the lakes to slowly drain away.

Once abundant with birdlife, these reed-ringed freshwater lakes are part of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. This is a tragic situation. No wonder the locals are distraught and demanding answers.

Yielding to pressure, the Government is conducting an inquiry by an independent panel of experts to get to the bottom of the ‘mystery’.

If the inquiry confirms mining is the culprit the local community will demand solutions. Can a fractured rock barrier be repaired so that the water and ecology can be restored? Or will this be yet another harsh lesson in the irrevocable impacts wrought by mining on our precious natural icons and our water supply.

When will the Government listen to the community and learn from these catastrophic mistakes? Their recently released strategic land use policy for coal seam gas mining, which refuses to place natural icons like Thirlmere Lakes and the Gardens of Stone off limits, suggests the big miners and developers are still in charge and running the show.

Please make a submission to the government’s inquiry. Details can be found here

The Government has pumped some welcome money into the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative but what still concerns me is the myriad planning decisions up and down the ranges happening every week that impact their conservation. The Government needs to remember their commitment to the Great Eastern Ranges initiative everytime the miners, loggers and developers come asking to damage another little piece of nature. That’s why I moved the following motion:

526. Ms Faehrmann to move—
1. That this House notes that, as is stated on the website for the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative, the
Great Eastern Ranges:
(a) are the mountainous ranges and escarpments of eastern Australia, including the Great
Dividing Range and the Great Escarpment,
(b) separate Australia’s eastern coastal fringe from the plains and the interior,
(c) are the backyard to our cities; places we visit for recreation and to restore our spirits,
(d) are home to many of Australia’s treasured areas of World Heritage, national parks, alpine
areas, forests, woodlands and rainforests,
(e) store carbon in their vast forests, breathing out oxygen we breathe in,
(f) contribute to our prosperity by sustaining agriculture, tourism and industry,
(g) are a refuge for our richest biodiversity, containing 66 per cent of the threatened species
in New South Wales, and
(h) are the source of our clean water providing water supplies for over 93 per cent of eastern
Australia’s population.
2. That this House notes that:
(a) in 2006, the Environment Heritage and Protection Council (EPHC) first considered the
idea of a continental scale conservation corridor extending along Australia’s great eastern
ranges from Victoria through New South Wales to Atheron in Queensland,
(b) in New South Wales, this became the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative which is a
collaboration with Bush Heritage Australia, Greening Australia, the National Parks
Association of NSW, Nature Conservation Trust of NSW and the Government,
Legislative Council Notice Paper No. 66—Wednesday 7 March 2012
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(c) the initiative aims to maintain and improve long-term connectivity conservation of
mountain ecosystems running the length of eastern Australia, with the 1,200 kilometre
New South Wales section of the Great Eastern Ranges the initial area of focus,
(d) the NSW Environmental Trust allocated $4.4 million to continue the Great Eastern
Ranges Initiative, which was announced by the Honourable Robyn Parker MP, Minister
for Environment on 16 December 2011, and
(e) the integrity of the ecosystems that comprise the Great Eastern Ranges corridor is still
being threatened by a lack of coordination to manage threats such as mining, logging and
housing developments.
3. That this House calls on the Government to ensure its commitment to the Great Eastern Ranges
Initiative includes protecting the integrity of the Great Eastern Ranges corridor when
considering applications for mining, logging and housing developments.

(Notice given 6 March 2012—expires Notice Paper No. 85)